There they lived for some time in great love
and happiness. When it appeared to Urashima that several weeks had passed
in this pleasant land, he begged permission of the Princess to return home
and see his parents.
"They will be sorrowing for me," he said. "They will fear that I am lost,
and drowned at sea." At last she allowed him to go, and she gave him a
casket, but told him to keep it closed.
"As long as you keep it closed," she said, "I shall always be with you, but
if you open it you will lose both me and this sunny summer land for ever."
Urashima took the casket, promised to keep it closed, and returned home.
But his native village had vanished. There was no sign of any dwelling
upon the shore, and not far away there was a town which he had never seen
before. In truth, every week that he had spent with the Princess had been
a hundred years on earth, and his home and native village had passed away
centuries ago, and the place where they had stood had been forgotten. In
his despair, he forgot the words of the Princess, and opened the forbidden
box. A faint blue mist floated out and spread over the sea, and a wonderful
change took place at once in Urashima. From a handsome youth he turned to a
feeble and decrepit old man, and then he fell upon the shore and lay there
dead. In the box the Princess had shut up all the hours of their happy
life, and when they had once escaped he became as other mortals, and old
age and death came upon him at a bound.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65